Geeky Goodies: Fish Fingers and Custard

I freely admit I am a terrible blogger but this latest hiatus has been stupidly long. Since my last post I have been on holiday, done a lot of overtime, had zero baking inspiration and had real life gang up on me all of which has left me with very little energy to devote to this place. And it's very hard to find the effort to work on something once you've gotten out of the habit of doing it! But the inspiration fairy has struck and now I’m back with a vengeance. I hope.

Now unless you have been living under a rock for the last year or so you should be aware that this Saturday (23^rd November 2013) marks the 50^th Anniversary of the cult classic Doctor Who. Whovians across the globe have been counting down the days to Saturday for months now as a special anniversary episode featuring 3 incarnations of the Doctor  (including one previously unknown) will be broadcast. Now is there a better reason to do some geeky baking? As a proud Whovian I don’t think so.

But what to bake? Dalek and TARDIS shaped cakes are too cliché, so I turned to the show itself for inspiration and there in the episode titled “The Eleventh Hour” was the answer. Fish fingers and custard.

I won’t bore you with the background to this combination but if you have no idea what I’m talking about I suggest watching the clip linked below.

Now in the show the Doctor ate real fish fingers with custard, I however don’t like fish fingers so I had to bust out my Fez and do some thinking. And then it came to me, chocolate brownies. And for once one of my mad cap ideas actually looked like the vision I had in my head, so I am proud to present a cakey version of an iconic dish.

Adipose approves of this

Ingredients
Your favourite brownie recipe
Vanilla flavoured frosting
Digestive biscuits
Custard

Method
Bake a batch of brownies as per your recipe. I’m pressed for time this week so I cheated and used the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Brownie mix (which is incredibly tasty). Ideally you want your brownies to be quite firm and not too gooey in the middle. Once baked, leave to cool and when completely cold carefully cut the brownie into thin rectangles. Mine were about 1 inch by 4 inches.

Now using a food processor (or by hand) crush the biscuits until they look like very fine breadcrumbs (just like when making a cheesecake). I used about 200g of biscuits. Pour the biscuit breadcrumbs onto a plate and put aside for the moment.

With a palette knife, carefully cover each slice of brownie with the frosting. Make sure it is completely covered including the bottom of each slice. Then put the brownie onto the breadcrumb plate and cover it with the biscuit crumbs. Move it around until all the frosting is covered with biscuit crumbs. Put the finished fish finger on a plate and continue until you run out of brownies. Any biscuit crumbs you have left over can be stored in an airtight container for another day (I’m thinking mini cheesecakes would be a good use for them!)

Now get yourself some custard, sit back and enjoy your brownie “fish fingers”. I think this recipe would be a great one to make with children as it is very easy and somewhat messy to do!

If you are feeling brave why not check out The Geeky Chef and have a go at making real fish fingers. I gather the combination is actually rather nice.
http://www.geekychef.com/2012/11/fish-fingers-and-custard.html

And as a bonus, here is this week’s episode of Nerdy Nummies in which Ro made adorable Adipose cupcakes! I am going to have to try this, the Adipose are my favourite aliens. 

And if that isn't enough Doctor Who themed goodies for you, head to Lakeland as they currently sell some brilliant Doctor Who themed baking equipment and party ware. I love the chocolate mould!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/p18038/Doctor-Who-Bakeware-Range